From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,FREEMAIL_FROM autolearn=unavailable autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Received: by 2002:a05:6214:593:: with SMTP id bx19mr3049442qvb.2.1587133893907; Fri, 17 Apr 2020 07:31:33 -0700 (PDT) X-Received: by 2002:a4a:e495:: with SMTP id s21mr2717619oov.79.1587133893716; Fri, 17 Apr 2020 07:31:33 -0700 (PDT) Path: eternal-september.org!reader01.eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!aioe.org!peer02.am4!peer.am4.highwinds-media.com!peer03.iad!feed-me.highwinds-media.com!news.highwinds-media.com!news-out.google.com!nntp.google.com!postnews.google.com!google-groups.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: Fri, 17 Apr 2020 07:31:33 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <87v9lye0yc.fsf@samuel> Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: google-groups.googlegroups.com; posting-host=47.185.215.60; posting-account=zwxLlwoAAAChLBU7oraRzNDnqQYkYbpo NNTP-Posting-Host: 47.185.215.60 References: <87muca3vgd.fsf@nightsong.com> <57d49047-0a61-4d13-8822-d004732a3acc@googlegroups.com> <3b1b248b-43d0-4762-b1f5-1c5460d24c8b@googlegroups.com> <5e222e6c-7afe-4349-ac66-d9b78ca40ec6@googlegroups.com> <27b11294-d628-4118-8328-a4a9a3946937@googlegroups.com> <80bcdfd1-b1e5-4ebf-aa8a-4beaba5ec3c2@googlegroups.com> <98f92454-404b-4500-b5e8-5e3048304f96@googlegroups.com> <87v9lye0yc.fsf@samuel> User-Agent: G2/1.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 Message-ID: Subject: Re: Beginning Ada Programming, by Andrew T. Shvets (2020) From: Optikos Injection-Date: Fri, 17 Apr 2020 14:31:33 +0000 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Received-Bytes: 4619 X-Received-Body-CRC: 2289344896 Xref: reader01.eternal-september.org comp.lang.ada:58396 Date: 2020-04-17T07:31:33-07:00 List-Id: On Friday, April 17, 2020 at 7:44:30 AM UTC-5, Ludovic Brenta wrote: > Andrew Shvets writes: > > 1 - Well, to look at this another way, bringing in ideas from other > > languages can have a benefit as well. After all, just about every > > language has its roots in a different programming language. >=20 > That's very true if your audience consists of language designers; not if > your audience consists of end users of a language. >=20 > > 2 - In regards to the Fortran programmer that wanted to make Fortran > > in C, that does happen, but that is not the case with most people. >=20 > I think the crux of the matter is who you decide your audience to be. >=20 > If you decide that you want to write a "Ada for Fortran/Pascal/C > programmers" then they already know all about control structures etc; > and you should dive into the type system upfront. >=20 > If, on the other hand, you are writing "Ada as a first language" (or > even "Ada for Lisp programmers") then yes, by all means, postpone the > discussion of user-defined types until after the basics of variables, > subprograms and control structures. >=20 > So I don't think there should be real opposition; both approaches have > their merits depending on the audience. >=20 > --=20 > Ludovic Brenta. > The sales manager standardizes the long-range workforce adjustments. This comment is not aimed at any particular book or edition or author. The very best-written programming-language books have a preface that catego= rizes the reader into various scenarios (e.g., I know another imperative la= nguage, so I need where Ada differs; I am new to programming entirely, so I= am not familiar with very many idioms at all; I know a different paradigm = of programming than imperative [e.g., functional; System F; System FC], so = I need to see whether any of my non-imperative idioms can be utilized in Ad= a). Then the preface tells the reader in each scenario which chapter seque= nce to read in which order different than sequential 1,2,3,... (e.g., read = Appendix J then chapter 4,5,6, then Appendix C, then Appendix H, then chapt= ers 7 and onward) and/or which chapters likely may be skipped or skim read = to get on to the meat of the matter. This guided-path reading of a book re= quires an insightful author to actually place themselves in each scenario a= nd to actually walk a mile in their shoes with empathy and without corner-c= utting. The extreme-detail variant of this technique of writing a book is the threa= ded programmed text where this path is encoded into the right-hand column t= hroughout the text instead of appearing in the preface. If Ada were to have only one modern textbook and no more, then this guided = reading-order style of writing would be crucial to addressing the vast majo= rity of the market.